North Carolina Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment 1 Reportedly Written To Protect 'Caucasian Race' [UPDATED]
Posted: 05/02/2012 11:54 am Updated: 05/07/2012 12:09 pm
Jodie Brunstetter is the wife of state Sen. Peter Brunstetter (R), a supporter of Amendment 1, which would change North Carolina's Constitution to permit only heterosexual marriage.
According to the alternative Yes! Weekly, writer and campaigner Chad Nance spoke to a pollworker who told him that Jodie Brunstetter said, "The reason my husband wrote Amendment 1 was because the Caucasian race is diminishing and we need to uh, reproduce."
ORIGINAL POST: Chad Nance, a Winston-Salem freelance journalist who is currently active in electoral campaigning, says poll workers outside the early voting site at the Forsyth County Government Center in downtown Winston-Salem reported to him that the wife of NC Sen. Peter Brunstetter remarked today that her husband sponsored legislation to put the marriage amendment on the primary ballot “to protect the Caucasian race.”
Nance said he recorded a conversation with the woman, whose name is Jodie Brunstetter, on video, and that she confirmed that she used the term “Caucasian” in a discussion about the marriage amendment, but insisted that otherwise her comments had been taken out of context by other poll workers.
Nance until recently served as campaign manager for Matt Newton, a Democratic candidate for the 12th Congressional District. Nance announced on Facebook today that he was resigning from the campaign because of Nance’s reaction to his plans to publicize Jodie Brunstetter’s alleged remarks. The Newton campaign has not responded to an e-mail request for comment about the resignation.
Nance has been working as a volunteer poll worker for the campaign of NC House candidate Ed Hanes Jr. and the campaign against the marriage amendment. He is a primary source for an unrelated story published by YES! Weekly about efforts to manipulate Democratic voters for the benefit of a favored slate of candidates. Nance said an African-American poll worker identified only as “Michael” initially told him about Jodie Brunstetter’s alleged remarks during a conversation with opponents of the marriage amendment.
Nance paraphrased the remarks, as told to him by those who were present: “During the conversation, Ms. Brunstetter said her husband was the architect of Amendment 1, and one of the reasons he wrote it was to protect the Caucasian race. She said Caucasians or whites created this country. We wrote the Constitution. This is about protecting the Constitution. There already is a law on the books against same-sex marriage, but this protects the Constitution from activist judges.”
Nance said he recruited a friend, who works for the Coalition to Protect All North Carolina Families, to witness his interview with Jodie Brunstetter. He said Brunstetter reluctantly acknowledged that she had used the term “Caucasian” and then repeated the statement previously attributed to her, but substituted the pronoun “we” for “Caucasian. Nance said Brunstetter insisted there was nothing racial about her remarks, but could not explain why she used the term “Caucasian.”
A phone message left at the Brunstetter residence in Lewisville was not immediately returned. Peter Brunstetter has served in the state Senate since 2006, when he was appointed to replace the late Ham Horton. Brunstetter has no primary opponent, but will face Democrat Delmas Parker in the November general election.
Nance provided an edited transcript from the video. I’ve left all spelling and punctuation errors intact to preserve its integrity. Nance said he is working with a local TV news outfit to disseminate the footage and plans to post it in entirety so that people will be satisfied that he has not taken Brunstetter’s words out of context or manipulated their meaning in any way.
In the below video a witness says on camera that the wife of the senator stated that the Constitution was made by whites and that gays essentially shouldn't get married because the white race is "diminishing."
MICHAEL:
“I had my back to her like this. She said, 'The reason my husband my husband wrote Amendment 1 was because the Caucasian race is diminishing and we need to uh, reproduce.”
UNIDENTIFIED POLL WORKER: “(Mrs. Brunsetter said) … the Caucasian race is diminishing. ?The reason that's a problem is that it was white people that founded this country.”
“She just wants a white majority so the good 'ol US of A can stay white.”
Brunsetter:
We are looking at the history of the United States and it is already law about what marriage is. Between a man and a woman. And we are looking at how American has been a great country. That's why people are coming here. And people who fouinded the United states wrote a Constitution and it has been what has preserved this society. And we were just talking about lots of different things which the gentleman was turning around.
Me:
You didn't tell that one lady that it was to preserve the Caucasian race because they were becoming a minority?
Brunsetter:
No.
Me:
She's lying?
Brunsetter:
No. It's just that same sex marriages are not having children.
Me:
Yeahm but you didn't say anything about Caucasians, white people, preserving them that's why it was written?
Brunsetter:
No I'm afraid they have made it a racial issue when it is not.
Me:
She didn't say it was a racial issue. She said that you had said that opart of the reason it had been sponsored and written was to preserve the white race.
(a moment later) … you didn't say anything about Caucasians?
Brunsetter:
I probably said the word.
Me:
You didn't tell her anything about Caucasians?
Silence.
Me:
I want you to clear it up if you could.
Brunsetter:
Right now I am a little confused myself because there has been confusion here today about this amendment where it is very simple. The opponents are saying things that are not true and there has been a lot of conversation back and forth.
Right now I have some heat stroke going on. Um there has been lots of confusion.
Me:
Did you say anything about Caucasians?
Brunsetter: If I did it wasn't anything race related.
Me:
But it is about identifying a race. No context on Caucasians?
Brunsetter:
There has been so much talk about this point that there is just a lot of confusion.
Me:
You're not going to be able to explain it?
Brunsetter:
Well, it's a little hard.
UPDATED: 5/7 12:05 p.m. -- Jodie Brunstetter didn't explicitly link North Carolina's marriage amendment with protecting the declining Caucasian race, a woman with knowledge of the conversation now concedes. Freelance writer Kate Maloy told the Winston-Salem Journal that Brunstetter had commented that America was founded by whites, that "the Caucasian race is diminishing," and said that it was important to preserve America as established by its founders. But Brunstetter did not state explicitly that that was why the amendment had been proposed, Maloy said.
Racist Wife May Have Ruined Senator's Career
May 02, 2012 06:11 PM EDT
North Carolina appears to be dealing with a racist ballot initiative that was already bigoted in the first place. Jodie Brunstetter, the wife of prominent state senator Peter Brunstetter, revealed the racial undertones of her hubby's initiative and it's not pretty. Naturally, like most politicians do, Peter is backpedaling for his wife and trying to do damage control, but guess what: The damage has already been done.
At the Forsyth County Government Center in Winston-Salem, Jodie Brunstetter made some downright racist comments in regards to Senator Peter Brunstetter's anti-gay amendment:
"The reason my husband wrote Amendment 1 was because the Caucasian race is diminishing and we need to uh, reproduce."
Wow. Just wow. It's almost unbelievable to hear someone say such a horribly bigoted thing publicly and without any qualms. Naturally her husband is trying to do damage control and this source shares all the details.
When asked about it, Sen. Brunstetter said the following:
"I know my wife does not think like that. She got very flustered (she is not a political person) and then someone came up to her and started shooting questions at her. She noticed later that there was someone video taping without her knowledge."
What's sad is that after this woman said the horribly bigoted things she said, she almost refused to admit it when she was on camera. She knew she was in the wrong. She knew what she said was terrible, and she said it thinking it wouldn't come back on her. She admitted to saying "caucasian" but she refused to acknowledge that "race" was an issue. What's refreshing is that the cameraman and the woman accompanying him treated this woman with kindness and dignity. They even offered to fetch her a cold water because she claimed to be suffering from a "heat stroke."
Sadly, when you "wiki" Peter Brunstetter, this gaffe is already highlighted on his short page. His wife's mouth may have ruined his career.
North Carolinians would be wise to avoid this bill, especially if they're not white.
